314 National Geograjphio Magazine. 



The French people have seen the scheme fail under Lesseps in 

 whom they had the most unbounded confidence, and it is not 

 likely that they will raise any more money to be put in it as a 

 business enterprise under any other management. Saddled as it 

 is with a debt of nearly four hundred millions of dollars, it would 

 be difiicult to convince any one that it could ever prove to be a 

 paying investment. Nor do I think that any American or English 

 corporation can be organized that could obtain such concessions 

 from Lesseps as would make the scheme an inviting field for 

 capitalists, and thus my opinion is that the " Compagnie Uhiver- 

 selle du Canal Inter oc'eanique de Panama has irretrievably col- 

 lapsed, and that the canal will remain, as it is now, the most 

 gigantic failure of the age. 



